Twinkies on the sly and other ways parents deceive

Generally speaking, Shannon McCormick loves fruits and vegetables and wants to pass that on to her 4-year-old. But her resolve is tested when she encounters her plump, red nemesis: the tomato.

"Tomatoes are my kryptonite. I hate them. My daughter loves them and I don't want to even suggest that they're anything less than delicious," said McCormick, in Columbus, Ohio.

This file photo shows Hostess Twinkies in New York. Twinkies first came onto the scene in 1930 and contained real fruit until rationing during World War II led to the vanilla cream Twinkie. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, file)

That's why she choked down an evil chunk when her child stabbed it with a fork and held it to her lips a few months back.

"I just sat there and looked at her and thought, 'Well I just have to do this,'" McCormick recalled. "I swallowed it whole."

Kids, parents are people, too. Remember that when you're older and learn of all the little things yours hid from you for the greater good. Consider such moments great family stories and decide for yourselves whether you want to carry on the time-honored tradition of hidden vices and small deceits in parenting.

"I've been hiding Twinkies under the front car seat since my first kid was in diapers," said Genevieve West, a stay-at-home mom of three in Portland, Ore. "Now that she's 12, my husband and I hide all evidence of our Starbucks trips or Thai takeout so we don't suffer her wrath."

Fast food was also a problem for Katrina Olson in Urbana, Ill.

"My husband abhors it, so when our girls were toddlers and wanted to go to McDonald's, we told them it was closed for cleaning on Tuesdays or Thursdays, or whatever day it happened to be. It worked for several years," she said.

But Wilkins is also something else: a third-generation chocolate hider.

"My brother and I would find it in the coat closet or the back of the freezer," she said. "My aunt had a very sensitive nose and was able to sniff it out."

Her son is now 11 and inherited that sensitive chocolate nose. At 4 or 5, Wilkins relied on the old "mommy's vegetables" response when he caught a whiff on her breath.

"I'd say, 'Oh, I just had some broccoli,' or I'd say an onion and he'd go, 'Ew' and walk away," Wilkins laughed.

She and her husband aren't so strict as to never allow their offspring chocolate. She just wasn't sure she wanted to reveal exactly how obsessed she was — and she wanted to reserve the good stuff for herself.

"Sometimes I go into the bedroom and shut the door for, like, a half-hour and have a little bit of chocolate, then I'll go rinse my mouth out. Seriously. You feel responsible. You don't want to teach them bad habits. You don't want to teach them your bad habits," she said.

Last modified: February 4, 2014
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